About two weeks later, on November 22, I had gotten through 8 more games for a total of 14. I was now playing number fifteen, which happened to be Sapphire, on the orange chair in the basement. It was the first game I ever played and easily my favorite.

I heard Johnny coming down the stairs, "How was the meeting?" I asked. After I won the testing case, Johnny decided to join the video game club at school.

"It was fantastic! This time they raffled off an old Kirby game: Nightmare in Dreamland. I won!" He held it up proudly for a moment then sat down sat down next to me to play it. After a minute he asked, "Remember when I talked to Tony at Pizza Hut? Right after we got the cases?"

"Yeah."

"And I asked him how old he was? He said he would be 18 in a month. That was a month ago."

"Really? We have to get a cake-."

"Wait, lemme talk. So I went through his car and found the exact date on his drivers license; It's tomorrow! We can throw him a surprise party! Mom and Dad are on business trips, Tyler and Mark are going to meet some friends tomorrow, and Brianna will be at a sleepover. We should ask his dad first if he has one planned." One time we asked Roy about his family. He briefly responded that his mom lived in California and that he lived with his dad.

"How do you plan on doing that?" I asked "We don't even know where he lives."

"His license has his address on it." And so we went to our older brothers' room.

Our brothers owned a small lawn mowing company that our dad started for them. They were still trying to get it off the ground, which is why they still lived with us. The first thing they did with their money was to buy a laptop. They said it was their most significant investment. But we have yet to see them do anything with it but play video games and believe me, they do that all the time. Well, they weren't right now, thankfully, or else we wouldn't have been able to print off directions to Roy's.

We then went to the garage grabbed our yard sale tandem bike and shoved off.

"I wish he would give us his house number instead of only his cell. Then we could just call his dad."

"Ya know, maybe he doesn't have a house phone."

"Who doesn't have a house phone?"

"I don't know!" I said slightly exasperated, "People who think they only need cell phones."

We were silent for a while then: "I'm cold."

"I told you to grab a warmer jacket." I should have probably gotten one too, my fingers were starting to go numb. "We'll be there soon."

/\\\\\\

About ten minutes later we reached a derelict apartment complex. The outside walls were grey and cracked, the roof was flat, and most of the windows had beat up air conditioners sticking out of them.

We almost left our bike lock at home; now I was glad we'd brought it. Seeing no bike racks we locked it to a tree before we walked up to the entrance. There was only one door outside this section of the complex, most of the green paint it had once been covered with was peeled off or covered in graffiti. We looked around for an intercom button or a doorbell or something but came up empty, so we tried the door and found it unlocked. We walked into a sad little hallway with several doors on the sides and a cage elevator at the end.

"Okay." I murmured, "Check his drivers license to see if we're at the right place."

"I didn't take it, what if he wanted to drive? I copied it down on a piece of paper." He pulled it out, "And it says this is the right place."

"What's his apartment number then?"

"516"

So we took the rickety elevator up to level 5 and walked up to his door. Or at least we hoped it was his door, all that was left was part of the 6.

"Are you sure he's not home?" Asked Johnny.

"Yeah, he told me he was going to the bowling alley with some of his senior friends."

We stood there for another minute.

"You want to knock?"

"Yes." And I gingerly reached out my arm and gave three quick raps on the door.

"Geeze." Muttered Johnny and he nudged me out of the way so he could knock loudly enough that whoever was inside could here.

After a minute we heard uneven footsteps coming toward the door, and several heavy latches unlock.

The door opened.

A washed out, saggy man with thick stubble stood before us. "Helllooo." This guy was wasted, big time.

"Hi." We responded. I continued uncertainly, "Are you Tony's father?"

"Yesss. Who wans ta know?"

"I'm Jo-" Johnny started to answer before I elbowed him.

"We're from his school," Johnny looked at me like I was crazy. Who would believe that? We were seven years younger than him, but the man was drunk so, "He asked us to pick up some stuff for him."

"Well come in."

And so we did, against my better judgment. We had a difficult time picking our way though the clothes and garbage strewn floor.

I remembered the original plan, so, while we were walking around trying to look like we were looking for something, I tried to make small talk with the guy.

"So how's Roy?"

"Fine."

"How are you?"

"Fine."

"So, where's Roy's room?"

"That way." He said, not indicating anything whatsoever.

"I hear his birthday's coming up." I said heading in the right direction.

"Is that ssso?" He said, still slurring. Oh geeze, would this guy even know?

"Yeah… Have you planned anything for it?" I was getting nervous.

"No." I noticed Johnny was picking at the pockets of some of the clothes on the floor.

"W-well," I started stammering, "Do you know if anyone is?"

"No."

"Thanks Mr. Clance." Said Johnny saving me from speaking, "We'll go now."

"Okaay." He mumbled and laid down on the couch and immediately started to snore.

Johnny and I got out of there as quickly and quietly as possible. Don't ask me why, he looked like he was sleeping as soundly as Tony does.

As we started down the hallway Johnny said, "Guess what I got?"

"What?" "Roy's address book."

"He has one?"

"Yep. It was in one of the jackets I looked through."

"At least somebody was thinking. That guy was giving me the creeps, I couldn't think straight... Poor Roy."

"That must stink, I hope he isn't like that all the time."

"Me too." After that we got into the elevator and thought in our own little worlds for a minute.

"Why didn't you want him to know who we were?" Johnny asked.

"I have a feeling Roy didn't want us to come here. And if his dad remembers us when he wakes up I would rather him not be able to tell Roy that we did." He nodded in agreement as we walked into the foyer.

We were silent for another minute, then Johnny said, "This might be why he wouldn't give us his home number."

"Your right, and it's probably why he'd never take us here."

We had started unlocking the bikes when Johnny asked, "What should we do now?"

"We have a party to plan, remember?"

/\\\\\\

By the time we got home it was 2 o'clock (Johnny's game club was made of early risers). We sat down at the kitchen table perpendicular to the sliding glass door leading on to our rotted wooden deck. Our house was built into the side of a small slope, so even though the deck was on the same level as the front door it was ten feet above the ground. It overlooked our expanse of land leading up to the forest surrounding us. I looked out at it. That forest was my favorite place in the world. When we weren't in the basement, that's where we were. Up in the high branches or down below, protected by the large canopy. When it snowed you could always tell exactly where all the fallen trunks were. Like white sprinkles on white frosting.

"We should go hang out in the woods after the party tomorrow."

"Yeah, we haven't done that in a while." He agreed. "What should we do first?"

"The party should start at 5:30... So lets call Roy and tell him not to come over to our house until that time tomorrow, and not to come over today. We'll say it's because… because our parents have the day off today and tomorrow and they want to spend the time with us… and that they're leaving for a date around five tomorrow."

"Wouldn't that be nice…"

"Then we'll call some of the people in his phone book and see if anyone is already throwing him a party and invite them to ours."

So we called Roy. After three rings he picked up.

"Hey, can you talk?"

"Yeah, we're playing Halo. Three people, two controllers. I'm taking a turn out."

In the background I heard "Craig! Shoot!"

And Roy yelled, "Shut up, Eric! I'm on the phone!" Boy was I lucky, I hadn't thought of accidentally calling the people Roy was with. Now I knew their names. "What's up?"

"Our parents are off work today and tomorrow and we want to spend the day with them. So don't come over until around 5:30 tomorrow, that's when they're going out… Can you come over tomorrow?"

"I was planning on it."

"Okay, have fun with Halo. Bye!"

"K-Bye."

We don't have big consoles like Wii, PlayStation, or Xbox, so we can't play games like Halo. We don't really like games that violent anyway.

I looked over at Johnny, he was staring intently at a page in the phone book. The page looked like it had been doggie-eared multiple times and it was full of numbers that had all been crossed out except for one at the bottom.

"This phone number must belong to someone important." He said without looking up. "Probably someone that would throw him a party."

"I don't think we should call it."

"Why?"

"Well… It's the only one in the book that doesn't have a name above it."

"I'm calling it anyway." He started dialing.

"Are you sure?" He pressed the call button. "Put it on speaker."

After more rings than I had ever heard on a phone, an woman answered: "Hello?"

"Hi, do you know Roy?" Asked Johnny pleasantly.

"How did you get this number?" Was immediately asked of us.

"Um, we-."

"How?" She asked aggressively.

"We just want to throw him a surprise party."

Again, she insisted, "How did you get this number!"

"It was in his address book and your number looked important." He said hurriedly, "We wanted to know if you knew if anyone was planning a surprise party for him and if not, invite you to one we we're planning." And after a long silence, "We're his friends."

"You will not give this number to anyone, you will not remember this number, and you will give that book back to Roy."

"Yes, yes, we promise. But please, please don't tell him we took it. Please?" He pleaded. "We went to his house, and I don't think he wanted us to."

"When you say us do you mean-?"

"My sister and I."

She sighed "Does she promise too?"

"I do." I said.

Another sigh, "Okay, I won't tell Roy you took his phone book, but I will check to see that he has it back tomorrow." She paused and then said a slightly calmed but woeful voice, "I haven't planned him a party, I don't know if anyone has… And I can' t go to anything you might be planning." Then she hung up.

We sat there for a minute wondering if that was who we thought it was.

/\\\\\\

After that we called another important looking number, this time one with a name above it.

"Hello, Jordan?"

"Hi."

"Do you know Roy."

"Yeah."

"We're throwing him a surprise party, do you know if anyone else is?"

"Nope, no party. I would know, I'm his best friend."

"Great. Would you come? It's tomorrow at 5:00."

"Sounds good. Can I help at all?"

"Well, we have his phone book but we don't know who should really be invited…"

"No problem, get something to write with. Some people that should come are: Michael, Trev, Craig…" He continued on with a list of twenty or so people. We thanked him and told him where to come tomorrow and were about to say good bye, When I realized I had no idea how to throw a teenage boy's birthday party.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"What should we have at the party? Like should we plan activities or something…"

"Who are you anyway? How old are you?"

"Um… we're his cousins…"

"Okay." He sounded unbelieving, "You'll mostly need TVs, music, a ton of food, and video games."

"We don't have any major consoles."

"I'll bring mine. I have a PlayStation, a Xbox and a Wii. I'll also bring controllers and some games. As for the music… I know a really good playlist on Youtube. So set up three TVs and a laptop."

"Thanks so much!… And do you think we should put up a birthday banner? And maybe some white Christmas lights?"

"Hey, why not?"

"Great, thanks again!"

"Kbye."

"Bye."

After that we called and invited the list of friends that Jordan suggested (Craig and Eric we would call later) Only two weren't coming. We told those who were coming to park their cars a few blocks away, so as not to give Roy any hints.

It was decided that the party would be held in our room. It was huge and pretty empty except for the bed, chairs, mini fridge, and TV. We hung up white Christmas lights on the ceiling and found a birthday banner and hung that up too. We covered the bed with a giant black sheet and shoved the rest of our stuff inside it and strung it with lights. We brought a folding table and chairs down from the attic. We put the table against the wall opposite the stairs and put a tablecloth on it. While we were in the attic we found a dart board and decided to bring that down too, we put it on the wall opposite the bed. And last we set the laptop up behind the curtain covering the bed and connected it to our sister's speakers next to it.

Then we got in our pajamas and played our games on the couch in the family room. By the time I'd finished Sapphire it was 10 o'clock and I realized we hadn't told Tony about the party. So I called him.

"What, Skye? I'm sleeping."

"Roy's birthday is tomorrow. We've planned a party. You should be here at five."

"…Wait, What!"

I spoke very slowly, "Roy's… birthday… is… tomorrow."

"I heard you but why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Sorry, I forgot."

"You forgot," He mumbled, "What can I do to help?"

"Your great, you know that?"

"Thanks," He mumbled.

"If you want to help, it would be great if you ordered and bought a chocolate cake from Jewel with 'Happy 18th Birthday Roy' on it." We couldn't serve Portillos cake to that many people. To expensive and not enough cake.

"Simple enough, I'll get a ride from my dad."

"Thanks so much." I looked at the sleeping boy next to me, "Johnny conked out; I've got to get him in bed. Bye."

"Bye."

I was going to wake Johnny and bring him downstairs but then I remembered why we came down here in the first place: our beds were covered with stuff, so may as well sleep on the couch. I turned off his Kirby and ran downstairs to the testing case buried deep in my closet, put away Sapphire, and decided to tackle Pokémon pinball. That one was going to take forever. I went back upstairs and sat next to Johnny on the couch. I caught twenty Pokémon before I was asleep with my head on his lap.